STEMRobotics
From STEMRobotics
Current Events
Check out the full schedule of our current events.
Mentor/Coach Training: Get a Chance to Build a Robot Yourself!
We are working to arrange a place to meet. When we have that, we will begin scheduling these "Coach-the-Coach" sessions again.
Maybe you can help? Have a place that we could meet to build some robots? Any room will do.
Learn to Program Your Robot!
When we have a place to meet again, we will start programming our robots with RobotC.
When we program, we will be programming with ROBOTC and a Vex IQ controller and various motors, servos, and sensors. If you don't have a robot, maybe you can get the Robotics Academy - Robot Virtual Worlds module, and program your robot that way! Either way, you need a laptop running some version of Windows and a licensed copy of RobotC. (RobotC Virtual Worlds Support)
We will be running through the RobotC environment and programming our robots.
We will also be looking at the sample programs and going through as many as we can over the course of several Wednesdays.
You really need to set up your laptop before you come to the class. Here are the prerequisites:Setting Up Your Laptop To Program RobotC.
Here is the link to download the RobotC for Cortex and IQ to program the Vex. Please make sure that you get the latest version (Platforms: Cortex, IQ (Version 4.25 RC 1 - 09/01/2014)
Don't forget to load the Prolific Driver to use the USB-to-Serial adapter. This lets you plug in the orange programming cable to put code on the robot. There are specific versions for the Windows OS that you are running, make sure you have the right one. The drivers are found on the same page as the demo copy of RobotC.
Start Your Team!
See this set of pages on Starting Teams but really consider looking at Starting Clubs. If you are interested in VEXIQ see Starting VEXIQ Teams.
There is still grant money available for new teams! Contact Info at stemrobotics dot org for more details.
Compete in Vex Clean Sweep
Here is the Game Animation.
Throw-down at Christopher Dock High School
We had another throw-down at Christopher Dock on Nov 6th. Chief Roboteer, Steve Rhoads brought a playing field, 4 robots, and plenty of excitement to the Christopher Dock robotics team. Team members had a chance to learn the programming environment (RobotC) and try out some "claw" robots which Steve had designed.
This is in preparation for our first competition of the year at Penn State Abington on December 5th. The robotics team meets during Activities periods on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and is led by Mrs. Gail Anderson.
Throw-down at Regency Apartments!
On Thursday, Steve met up with our new mentors at Regency: Crystal, Blake and Amy for the first of the 2009-2010 throw-downs.
They turned on the music, assembled the field, set up the robots and began competing in fast-paced, heart-pumping 2 minute rounds.
There were 10 kids and a number of parents cheering the action on. Each kid was Driver, then Operator, then Field Reset. They also rotated through all of the robots that were on the field.
There were two converted ProtoBots (the intake wheel had been converted to a paddle), and two Explorer Claw robots, one of each type for each alliance. They played a variation of the Elevation game from last year
All-in-all, it was a great time.
Next throw-down is October 22 at the Church Farm School from 7:00-9:00PM. See you there!
Combat Coding
Wednesday (Nov 18, 2009), we met again.
This time, Foster had the programming team working on mechanical construction with their respective teams, BUT Taylor Gore took a moment off building to demonstrate some solid Combat Coding! He programmed a holonomic drive for another team (?Team 84?). He made sure that he enabled the Y-Axis of both joysticks plus the buttons on the back of the transmitter all worked together to strafe, drive forward, rotate and back up.
Very impressive! Good job, Taylor!
Last night (Wednesday - Nov 11, 2009), our programmer group walked with Chief Roboteer Steve Rhoads through a RobotC competition template. We examined the grammar of "C" (semi-colons, sequence, branching, and looping) and the structure of a competition relative to the template.
Mike Long, DEWBot Programmer, asked about using the 150+ sample programs to assemble a stellar competition program. Using his question as a guide, we copied basic movement code from the "Moving Forward.c" program from the "Basic Movement" folder and driving code from the "Dual Joystick Control.c" program in the "Radio Control Transmitter" folder. We put those lines of code into a copy of the "Vex_Competition_Template.c" program from the "Templates" folder.
The result? Code that I think might seriously be able to win most beginner-to-intermediate competitions (as long as the machine was mechanically sound).
Mike was put to the test almost immediately afterward. Foster Schucker, STEM Robotics Chief Roboteer, came over to the programmer area and asked if Steve could program a robot for a demo the next day. Steve said, "No, but Mike can!" Mike put his new skills to the test. He successfully programmed and verified a dual-joystick, dual-transmitter solution for the Protobot (4-motor base, tank drive: Lever arm with intake roller) in moments! GO MIKE!
That's what I call "Combat Coding!"
Come next week, and participate in "Combat Coding" our Robot Relics. I will slap down a machine (dual motor, quad-motor, or holonomic drive), specify a game objective, a drive-control type (dual or single joystick) and any associated sensors along with an environmental manipulator.
You make it work! (I am supposed to only take half the session time, so you need to do this in less than an hour.)
Happy solutioning!
Low-Cost FIELD!
Note the field in the picture above! I built that field using the Vex Robotics site instructions and PVC.
There is NO REASON for every club/team not to have a field! It was easy to put together, and the cost was nominal (at most ~ $100. I think that my costs were closer to about $75.00) The result is very lightweight, yet sturdy, and transportable! Join us at one of our throw-downs and take a look.
Steve
Welcome to STEMRobotics!
We are a non-profit group that is bringing Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) to students by using competition robotics.
Driving the robots in Competitions is a small part of what we do. From the beginning we teach each roboteer valuable life skills like communications, planning, getting a group consensus, cooperation and negotiations. We also bring to life STEM skills in areas of electronics, mechanics, pneumatics, programming by planning, designing, building (and sometimes rebuilding), testing and driving our robots.
Workshops
Tuesday nights: 6:30-8:30pm. We will be working through the Yolande Petersen Guides below in Resources. (Downingtown Education Center, 355 Manor Ave, Downingtown, PA 19335) Our primary resource is VEX for the Technically Challenged.
See Mentor Workshop for a week by week description on what is planned and Summer 2009 Mentor Workshop for what happened at each session.
Events: Throw-downs, Workshops and Competitions!
The Current Events list!! Don't miss the Summer of Fun 2009
Some of our past events have been:
- Radcorp Summer of Fun 2007
- We held a number of robot build nights and some competitions.
- Summer of Fun 2008
- More events and more competitions!
STEM Sites
We are setting up STEM Sites has incubators for robotics teams. Click the link to learn more.
Resources
Media:Steps_to_starting_a_VEX_robotics_program.pdf -- CMU's guide to Starting a Vex Robotics Program.
Media:VEX Robots for Beginners.pdf -- a guide to building VEX robots
Media:VEX for the Technically Challenged.pdf -- a detailed guide on building VEX robots, we use this for the Mentor's class.
Media:Robot Recipes.pdf -- a collection of cool VEX robots that you can build
Media:Clueless Coach.pdf -- timeless tips and ideas on how to be a competition robotics coach
Carnegie-Mellon's Summer Programs for Educators: http://www.education.rec.ri.cmu.edu/content/educators/professional_dev/index.htm
VEX Programming Information about the VEX Programming environments
Mid-Atlantic VEX Partner
STEMRobotics is one of the groups that make up the VEX Partners in the Mid-Atlantic area. Teams from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virgina work together sharing ideas and resources. The Mid-Atlantic VEX Partners also coordinate events and workshops.
Sponsors
STEMRobotics is sponsored by:
- Kaloke Technologies is an inital sponsor of our events.
- RADCorp is another of our inital sponsors.
Techentourage is a new sponsor for 2009 and 2010.
If you would like to sponsor competition robotics and getting STEM education to middle and high school students please contact us!
